Vaginal mesh implants: Hundreds sue NHS over ‘barbaric’ treatment

Image caption
Kate Langley has been left in permanent pain by her vaginal mesh implant

More than 800 UK women are taking legal action against the NHS and the makers of vaginal mesh implants, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned.

The implants are used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence after childbirth, but some can cut into the vagina – causing severe discomfort.

Some women have been left in permanent pain, unable to walk, work or have sex. One called the implants “barbaric”.

The UK’s medicines regulator said it “sympathises” with the women affected.

Kate Langley had to give up her business as a childminder because the pain was so intense she could not look after the children.

The surgeon who first examined her, she explained, “could see the [mesh] tape had come through my vagina – protruding through.

“The mesh had cut its way through – like a cheese-wire.”

Image caption
The mesh implants are used to ease incontinence and to support organs

Other women, reporting similar symptoms, have said the perforation was so severe their partners had been injured by the mesh during sex.

Ms Langley, who described the meshes as “barbaric”, said she has had 53 hospital admissions to try to end the pain, but – like many women – the mesh was so near the nerve it could not be fully removed.

She has been left in permanent pain by the implants and has nerve damage.

The plastic meshes are made of polypropylene – the same material used to make certain drinks bottles – and manufactured by many different companies.

They are used to ease incontinence and to support organs such as the vagina, uterus, bowel, bladder or urethra which have prolapsed after childbirth.

Claire Cooper began to experience pain three years after her operation.

Doctors wrongly believed the source of discomfort was her womb, which she had had removed at the age of 39.

When the pain continued, she said a GP told her she was imagining it.

Media captionClaire Cooper has been left unable to have sex because of the pain

The news made her want to take her own life. She said she “mapped out” her suicide, but wanted to live on for her children.

She still lives in pain and said her husband has “turned into my carer”.

“We haven’t had sex for four-and-a-half years. This stuff breaks up marriages.

“I wouldn’t at all be surprised if there are mesh-injured women that have taken their own lives and didn’t know what the problem was,” she said.

Ms Cooper is one of a number of women calling for the NHS to stop fitting the implants.

“I want the procedure banned, I want the material banned,” she said.

Labour MP Owen Smith, who is planning to hold a Parliamentary debate on the issue, called for an investigation into the use of vaginal mesh.

He told the BBC: “I think there is a really good case for saying ‘suspend its usage’ until there is clarity about the scale of the problems we’re facing.”

Unaware of risks

Between April 2007 and March 2015, more than 92,000 women had vaginal mesh implants in England, according to NHS data from the Hospital Episodes Statistics, obtained by the Victoria Derbyshire programme.

About one in 11 women has experienced problems, the data suggests.

Now, more than 800 women in the UK are taking legal action against the NHS and manufacturers, including US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson – the biggest makers of mesh implants.

Its subsidiary, Ethicon, said it was “vigorously defending litigation”.

Many of the women the BBC met said they had never been told by their surgeons about the potential risks associated with the implants.

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